Offers an integrated presentation of the microbial, agronomic and recycling aspects of soil faunal potentials, emphasizing agricultural ecosystems and furnishing methods for modelling food webs. The text covers morphology, reproduction, abundances, basic requirements, competition, predation, parasitism, nutrient cycling and phytopathological interactions, soil physics and agricultural management, plus methods to quantify soil faunal groups.
Ecosystem Consequences of Soil Warming: Microbes, Vegetation, Fauna and Soil Biogeochemistry focuses on biotic and biogeochemical responses to warmer soils including plant and microbial evolution. It covers various field settings, such as arctic tundra; alpine meadows; temperate, tropical and subalpine forests; drylands; and grassland ecosystems. Information integrates multiple natural science disciplines, providing a holistic, integrative approach that will help readers understand and forecast future planetwide responses to soil warming. Students and educators will find this book informative for understanding biotic and biogeochemical responses to changing climatic conditions. Scientists from a wide range of disciplines, including soil scientists, ecologists, geneticists, as well as molecular, evolutionary and conservation biologists, will find this book a valuable resource in understanding and planning for warmer climate conditions.
The fourth edition of Soil Microbiology, Ecology and Biochemistry updates this widely used reference as the study and understanding of soil biota, their function, and the dynamics of soil organic matter has been revolutionized by molecular and instrumental techniques, and information technology. Knowledge of soil microbiology, ecology and biochemistry is central to our understanding of organisms and their processes and interactions with their environment. In a time of great global change and increased emphasis on biodiversity and food security, soil microbiology and ecology has become an increasingly important topic. Revised by a group of world-renowned authors in many institutions and disciplines, this work relates the breakthroughs in knowledge in this important field to its history as well as future applications. The new edition provides readable, practical, impactful information for its many applied and fundamental disciplines. Professionals turn to this text as a reference for fundamental knowledge in their field or to inform management practices. - New section on "Methods in Studying Soil Organic Matter Formation and Nutrient Dynamics" to balance the two successful chapters on microbial and physiological methodology - Includes expanded information on soil interactions with organisms involved in human and plant disease - Improved readability and integration for an ever-widening audience in his field - Integrated concepts related to soil biota, diversity, and function allow readers in multiple disciplines to understand the complex soil biota and their function
Describes the organisms inhabiting the soil, their functions and interactions and the dimensions of human impact on the activity of soil organisms and soil ecological function; and discusses basic soil characteristics and biogeochemical cycling, key soil flora and fauna, community-level dynamics (soil food webs) and the ecological and pedological functions of soil organisms. Also conveys an understanding of how human activities impact upon soil ecology in a section on ecosystem management and its effects on soil biota.
Taking a global perspective, this book examines what will happen to invasive species, including plants, animals and pathogens,with current and expected man-made climate change.
I was asked to introduce this volume by examining "why a knowledge of ecosys tem functioning can contribute to understanding species activities, dynamics, and assemblages." I have found it surprisingly difficult to address this topic. On the one hand, the answer is very simple and general: because all species live in ecosystems, they are part of and dependent on ecosystem processes. It is impossible to understand the abundance and distribution of populations and the species diversity and composition of communities without a knowledge of their abiotic and biotic environments and of the fluxes of energy and mat ter through the ecosystems of which they are a part. But everyone knows this. It is what ecology is all about (e.g., Likens, 1992). It is why the discipline has retained its integrity and thrived, despite a sometimes distressing degree of bickering and chauvinism among its various subdisciplines: physiological, be havioral, population, community, and ecosystem ecology.
This open access book synthesizes leading-edge science and management information about forest and rangeland soils of the United States. It offers ways to better understand changing conditions and their impacts on soils, and explores directions that positively affect the future of forest and rangeland soil health. This book outlines soil processes and identifies the research needed to manage forest and rangeland soils in the United States. Chapters give an overview of the state of forest and rangeland soils research in the Nation, including multi-decadal programs (chapter 1), then summarizes various human-caused and natural impacts and their effects on soil carbon, hydrology, biogeochemistry, and biological diversity (chapters 2–5). Other chapters look at the effects of changing conditions on forest soils in wetland and urban settings (chapters 6–7). Impacts include: climate change, severe wildfires, invasive species, pests and diseases, pollution, and land use change. Chapter 8 considers approaches to maintaining or regaining forest and rangeland soil health in the face of these varied impacts. Mapping, monitoring, and data sharing are discussed in chapter 9 as ways to leverage scientific and human resources to address soil health at scales from the landscape to the individual parcel (monitoring networks, data sharing Web sites, and educational soils-centered programs are tabulated in appendix B). Chapter 10 highlights opportunities for deepening our understanding of soils and for sustaining long-term ecosystem health and appendix C summarizes research needs. Nine regional summaries (appendix A) offer a more detailed look at forest and rangeland soils in the United States and its Affiliates.
This book "Biodiversity Conservation and Utilization in a Diverse World" sees biodiversity as management and utilization of resources in satisfying human needs in multi-sectional areas including agriculture, forestry, fisheries, wildlife and other exhaustible and inexhaustible resources. Its value is to fulfill actual human preferences and variability of life is measured by amount of genetic variation available. In viewing diversity as an ultimate moral value, one is faced with a situation in environmental preservation in order to allow components of total diversity to flourish and constitute a threat to continuous existence and decrease total diversity. The overall importance described economic benefits from bio-diversity, though difficult to measure and varying, but are limited on a local scale, increase on a regional or national scale and become potentially substantial on a transnational or global scale.
